by Janet Dailey
The sensations he was arousing inside her were both sensuous and seductive. She was possessed by the dangerous urge to glide into his arms and mold her supple body against his hard, rangy length.
Alarm bells rang a warning inside her head as his gaze began to slide down her stomach, starting a delicious curling sensation in her loins.
"Cole, stop it!" she protested shakily.
His answer was to move in front of Lacey, an arm braced on the counter on either side of her, trapping her. A traitorous weakness caused her knees to tremble. She felt giddily light-headed, a feeling that increased as the rippling muscles of his legs pressed against her thighs.
Bending his head, he sought the curve of her neck, teasing the sensitive skin with his mouth. And the caress carried a promise of something more. Lacey quivered in expectation. He nibbled moistly on her neck, his breath warm against her skin.
"I want you, Lacey," he murmured against her throat.
When he put into words what had only been a nebulous thought in her mind, she wakened to the danger of the moment. Regardless of how strong his attraction was, she wouldn't be any man's plaything — to be used and discarded when his amusement was over. And Cole was capable of that. Hadn't he virtually ignored her for the past four days?
One minute she was pliantly yielding to his touch and the next she was ducking under his arms and stepping quickly away. He turned slowly, almost in surprise, as if he hadn't realized she could slip away, nor that she would want to.
"You were forgetting the ground rules again, Cole," she reminded him, her voice breathless. "Besides, you have your paperwork to finish." She retreated a step under his direct stare. "And your coffee is getting cold, too."
Cole made no move toward her and she turned to hurry to her bedroom, tossing hastily over her shoulder, "Good night."
As she started to close her door, Cole's quiet voice carried from the living room, taunting softly, "You were forgetting the ground rules, too, Lacey."
There wasn't any reply she could make to that.
YELLOW BEAMS OF SUNLIGHT peeped through the slit of the curtains. Lacey opened an eye, absently studying the dancing particles of dust caught in the sliver of light.
Lifting her head from the pillow, she glanced at the clock and groaned. It was six o'clock. Obviously she had wakened in anticipation of Cole's alarm going off. She covered her head with the pillow and waited for the customary buzz.
Ten minutes later there was still no sound of the alarm clock going off. Not that it mattered, she sighed. She couldn't go back to sleep even if Cole had decided to have a late morning after working so late last night.
Climbing out of bed, she put on her housecoat and walked out the door into the hall. The door to Cole's bedroom stood open, and automatically she glanced inside as she tiptoed by. The bed was made.
"That's a first!" Lacey murmured wryly. Usually she made his bed after he had left in the morning.
Either Cole had risen much earlier or else he hadn't bothered to go to bed at all. He had still been in the living room working when she had finally gone back to sleep. It was possible that when he finished, he had dressed and gone into the office early. Or …
Lacey tiptoed into the living room. There he was, half sitting and half lying on the sofa, fully dressed, with his papers and notes strewn on the cushions around him. He looked so tired that she disliked the thought of waking him. But he also looked very uncomfortable.
As quietly as she could, she gathered up the papers scattered around him and set them in neat stacks on the lid of his briefcase. She managed to slip one of the throw pillows beneath his head and was debating whether she could swing his legs onto the cushions without waking him.
He stirred and she became motionless. Sleepy dark blue eyes peered at her through a screen of dark spiky lashes. Cole shifted slightly and grimaced, as if cramped muscles were making their soreness known.
"What time is it?" he mumbled.
"About a quarter past six."
Groaning, he rubbed his forehead. "It can't be. I was only going to rest my eyes for a few minutes."
"From the looks of you, you could do with a few more minutes of rest,'" Lacey suggested dryly.
"I can't." He pushed himself into a sitting position, arching his back and watching. "I have a meeting first thing this morning. I have to get into the office."
There was no use arguing; he wouldn't listen to her anyway. "I'll put some coffee on," she said instead.
She did just that while Cole showered and changed. A glass of orange juice was sitting on the counter for him when he entered the kitchen. She assured herself that she had only done it because she felt sorry for him.
"That helped," he declared after downing the juice.
Maybe, Lacey conceded to herself, but the reviving effect of the juice would be short-lived. Even after showering and putting on fresh clothes, there were still lines of strain and weariness cracking the vital mask.
"You really should get more rest, Cole," she said impulsively. "Get some sleep instead of working all night."
"The work has to be done." He shrugged and walked to the sink counter to set down the glass and pour a cup of coffee.
"You should do it at your office and not bring so much home at night," Lacey retorted.
"I get ten times as much done here as I ever did at the office. There aren't any distractions or interruptions." Cole paused, glancing at her. "Or at least, there aren't as many distractions."
Lacey pretended not to understand that comment. "It's no skin off my nose if you work yourself to death," she retorted stepping down from the bar stool.
"Where are you going?" He eyed her curiously.
"To shower and dress." She started into the living room.
"Lacey?" She paused to look at him. "Thanks for waking me up," Cole said, smiling.
Returning his smile, Lacey nodded and quickened her steps to the hall. He was gone by the time she had finished showering.
The previous days of her vacation had seemed to pass swiftly, but today the hours were dragging. It was barely the middle of the afternoon and she felt completely at a loose end. She had lain in the sun for as long as she dared, then sought the shade of the balcony, stretching out on a lounge chair with a book. But it had failed to hold her interest.
Sighing, she slid a piece of paper between the pages to mark her place and set it down. She stood up and walked to the railing, lifting her face to the cooling breeze blowing from the ocean.
She was still wearing her shiny one-piece bathing suit, an unusual blue gray color. Maybe she could change her clothes and drive into Virginia Beach to treat herself to a dinner out.
The ring of the doorbell resounded distantly through the house. She turned in surprise, wondering who would be calling at this hour of a Friday afternoon. All of her close friends were working. Of course, there was always the possibility that it was a salesman.
Any distraction was welcome, so she went to answer the door, hurrying into the house to glide swiftly down the stairs. She peered through the peephole and frowned. It looked like Mike standing outside. She opened the door and confirmed the identification.
"I was hoping you'd be here," he announced with a smile.
"You should be working!" It was almost an accusation.
"I should be," Mike agreed, stepping into the house as Lacey moved aside to admit him. "But it's been one long, hectic week and I told the bosses I was taking off early today. And if they didn't like it, they could shove it."
"It's been as bad as that, has it?" Lacey grinned, knowing that Mike would never have put it that bluntly in his request.
She had been uneasy about meeting Mike again after that disastrous dinner. But within seconds after opening the door, she found that his attitude allowed her to slip back into the comfortable relationship they had previously shared. It made her feel good that the breach between them had been repaired.
"Worse!" he exclaimed with mock exaggeration.
"How
far will a cold beer go to making it worthwhile?" she teased.
"It sounds better than a paycheck right now," Mike laughed. "Just lead me to it."
"Follow me," said Lacey, ascending the steps. "I know there's at least a couple of cans in the refrigerator."
A few minutes later, ensconced in a lounge chair on the balcony with a cold beer in his hand, Mike declared with a long sigh of contentment, "Now, this is living. Peace and quiet and your own unobstructed view of the ocean. I kept thinking about this view all week."
"And all the while, I've been thinking you'd driven all the way out here to see me," Lacey sighed mockingly.
"Oh, I did," he assured her, settling deeper into his chair. "I never realized what a gem of a secretary I had until you went on vacation."
"How is Donna doing?"
"She's driving me up the wall — that's how she's doing," Mike grumbled.
"She really is a very competent secretary." Lacey defended her co-worker while offering a wry smile of understanding.
"She is, yes," he agreed. "But she chatters like a magpie all day long, saying the dumbest things. I can't make up my mind if all that naiveté is for real or if it's an act she puts on because she thinks it's cute."
"I'm afraid the bulk of it is genuine."
"Thank God it's only another week before you come back." Mike took a swig of his beer. "More than that and I think I'd hand in my resignation."
"Really?" A mischievous light twinkled in her brown eyes. "I was thinking of giving you a two-week notice and recommending Donna to take my place permanently."
She squealed with laughter as Mike came bounding out of his chair, catching her by the wrist. Gaining a firmer hold, he swept her into his arms and off her feet to hold her over the balcony railing.
"Put me down, Mike!" She was laughing so hard she could hardly talk, her fingers clinging to his arms instinctively rather than out of fear.
"Take back what you said or so help me, I'll drop you!" he threatened, but his dancing hazel eyes indicated that he had not the slightest intention of carrying it out.
Six
* * *
"I take it back! I take it back!" Lacey promised between gasps of breathless laughter.
Mike swung her away from the railing, letting her feet slide to the floor. "Don't ever joke about a thing like that again," he warned with a broad grin.
"I won't, believe me," she declared, leaning a shoulder heavily against his chest as she struggled to catch her breath.
"You'd better —"
"Is this where you go, Bowman, when you tell your office that you' re out on a job site?" Cole's biting question wiped the smiles from both their faces.
Lacey turned with a jerk to see him standing in the doorway, the knot of his tie loosened and the top button of his shirt unfastened. He looked as tired and irritable as he had sounded, and coldly angry.
"The office was aware that I was through for the day when I left there an hour ago," Mike replied with commendable calm.
"That isn't what your secretary said," Cole snapped, his eyes glinting with the metallic blue of finely honed steel.
"Donna again!" Mike muttered beneath his breath.
And Lacey guessed that her replacement had decided it was more politic to tell a client that Mike was working than that he had left early.
"It was an unwise decision on the part of Mike's temporary secretary to tell you that instead of the truth," she stated in Mike's defense.
"So you're playing the dutiful secretary again, rushing in to defend your boss," Cole taunted.
The angle of her chin increased. "I'm merely trying to straighten out your facts!" she retorted.
"Are you?" His mouth twisted cynically.
"And while we are on the subject of working, what are you doing here, Cole? Why aren't you at your office?" Lacey demanded accusingly.
"In case you've forgotten," he snapped, "I was up practically all night working!"
"So you decided to leave early," she concluded, and tipped her head to challenge him. "Can you be sure your secretary is telling that to those who call for you? Or will she make up some other excuse for your absence, the way Mike's secretary did when you called?"
"It sounds very plausible." Cole's voice was riddled with skepticism.
"The truth generally does," Lacey flashed.
His wintry steel eyes raked her from head to toe, taking in the shiny bathing suit that so attractively showed off her curves. "But I can't help wondering how many times this past week Bowman has been here when he was supposedly at a job site." On the last word, Cole pivoted sharply and walked away.
The arrogant set of his wide shoulders was like a red cape to a bull, and Lacey started to charge blindly after him. Mike laid a restraining hand on her arm.
"Let it be, Lacey," he suggested, recognizing the warning signs that her temper was ready to let fly.
She jerked her arm away from his hand and stalked into the house after Cole, catching up with him in the living room. In the act of stripping the tie from around his neck, Cole glanced at her coolly.
Lacey unleashed her anger in a flurry of acid words. "It's none of your business how many times Mike has been here this last week, if he's been here at all! Furthermore, he's my guest and —"
"Perhaps," Cole interrupted sharply, "if you'd possessed the common courtesy to let me know you were going to entertain tonight, I could have made other arrangements to be elsewhere so the two of you could be alone."
"So now you're accusing me of a lack of courtesy?" Her hands rested on her hips, fury trembling in her voice. "What about yours?"
"Mine? Because I was rude to Bowman, I suppose?" he concluded with a contemptuous twist of his mouth.
"Among other things," Lacey agreed.
He drew his head back to study her arrogantly. "What other things?" he demanded.
"Every single day this week your alarm has woken me up while you slept right through it," she retorted.
Lacey knew she was being goaded into this argument by more than just the things Cole had said against Mike. Some sort of an explosion had been building inside her all week. It had needed only a spark to ignite the fuse.
"I've apologized for that," Cole reminded her grimly.
"Apologies don't help me go back to sleep," Sarcasm licked her words.
"If you don't like our arrangement, why don't you move out?" he challenged.
"I am not moving out! You leave!" Lacey countered angrily.
"Why? So Bowman can move in? That would be cozy, wouldn't it?"
Lacey sputtered impotently for a second. "His company would certainly be preferable to yours!"
"I bet it would. No ground rules. No separate bedrooms. No separate beds." Cole snapped out the words almost savagely.
"Your mind is as dirty and vile as your words are!" Lacey flashed spitefully. "You should marry Monica. You're two of a kind!"
"I'm leaving," Mike declared from the balcony door. "I didn't come here to start a free-for-all."
Lacey turned with a start. For a few minutes she had forgotten Mike was even there. "Don't go, Mike. Cole was just leaving," she insisted tightly.
"Like hell I am!" he growled. "You can either do your entertaining while I'm in the house or go somewhere else. But I am not leaving."
"Fine." Lacey clipped out the word and glanced at Mike. "Give me a couple of minutes to get dressed and I'll go with you."
He gave her a brief nod of agreement and Lacey walked purposefully to her room. Stripping off her bathing suit, she hurriedly donned her undergarments and an apricot flowered sundress. A taut silence stretched from the living room, its oppressive stillness spreading through all the rooms.
Mike was waiting at the head of the stairs when she reappeared. Skirting the grim-visaged Cole, she walked to the staircase to join Mike. He shifted uncomfortably as Lacey paused to cast a fiery look at Cole.
"The house is yours for the evening," she told him with a cloying smile. "You can have all the peace an
d quiet you've been wanting." The sweetness turned to venom as she added, "And I hope it smothers you!"
With a toss of her head, she swept past Mike down the steps to the front door. Outside, the staccato click of her sandal heels on the pavement indicated that her anger had not fully abated. Mike moved forward to walk beside her, lengthening his stride to keep up with her rapid pace.
"Considering the present circumstances, Lacey," he began hesitantly, "don't you think it would be better if you moved back to your apartment for the rest of your vacation?"
"And let that man win?" she flashed. "Not on your life! I wouldn't give him that satisfaction. I can make his life as miserable as he makes mine."
Stopping beside his car, she waited expectantly for him to open the door for her. When he didn't immediately, she glanced at him and noticed the rather pained expression on his face.
"What's wrong, Mike?" she demanded, the crispness of leftover anger still in her voice.
"I don't know how to tell you this," he murmured uncomfortably.
"Tell me what?" Her patience was in short supply.
His gaze ricocheted away from hers. "I have a date tonight," he announced flatly.
"You have a what?" Of all the ironies, that had to be the tops! Lacey nearly chocked on a gurgle of bitter laughter.
"I'm sorry, Lacey," he offered grimly. "I thought I'd stop over for a couple of hours to relax and talk, then get out before Whitfield came."
And she had automatically assumed that he had arrived for the evening. That definitely had to be the height of self-conceit, whether she had been aware of it or not.
She glanced back at the house. She simply could not go back there, not until much later. Cole would never let her hear the end of it if he learned the truth.
"It's all right, Mike," she said finally. "It's just what I deserve."
"What are you going to do?"
"I'm not going back in there and have Cole start gloating, that's for sure," she declared emphatically. "I'll go somewhere. Would you mind waiting a couple of minutes while I get my car out of the garage?"
